A history of Finnish experiments in 'buzzing' BASIC over FM radio

Trying to ease the fright
Finland can be a very cold place, but it has also become a hotbed
of technology innovation. Though the best known player is Finnish
telecommunications pioneer Nokia, individuals have also
made their mark. In 1988, information science PhD candidate Jarkko Oikarinen wrote
the first Internet Relay Chat (IRC) program at the University of
Oulu. Three years later, four Finnish students took on Tim
Berner-Lee's challenge to develop Web browsers by creating Erwise, one of the
earliest such browsers anywhere. (Erwise might have become more
than a historical footnote had Finland not suffered a terrible
recession in 1991.)

A small team of Finnish game developers enjoyed far more luck a
dozen years later. Launched in 2003, Rovio Entertainment
Company had a huge hit with its 2009 release of one of the
most delightful time wasters in mobile game history:Angry Birds.

Kai Lehtonen didn't know, back in 1985, that any of this was in
Finland's future, but he wanted to get something started. "Our goal
was not to teach programming but to spread general understanding of
computing and to ease the fright many people had about computing,"
he told Ars. "We tried to show that computing was fun."

In pursuit of this goal, Silikoni did far more than just buzz
BASIC, Pascal, and an occasional assembly language program across
the FM airwaves. It celebrated computing in general, making pains
to reach out to the lay public. Based on the code transmissions,
you might think that the show played only to red-eye
listeners-airing deep into the dark of night when only the geeks
were listening. The producers encouraged this impression by
using "Midnight Dynamos" by
Matchbox as the Silikoni theme song. ("The idea was that the nerds
were sort of midnight dynamos," Lehtonen told us.)

But Silikoni actually aired at a mainstream time slot-Thursdays
at 6:30 PM, with a repeat on Mondays at the same time. And while
those buzzing transmissions remained central to the production, the
staff reserved plenty of space for discussion of broad computer
topics. These included subjects such as, "Who knows the best
computer jokes?" Once enough gags poured in, Silikoni did what came
naturally-it buzzed out "a Commodore 64 programme announcing the
winner of the first round of the computer jokes competition."

More serious topics included:

"How to organise a computer camp."

"How to make overhead transparencies with a computer and how to
use them in a new way."

"Police and computers. Interview with Aulis Gerlander, Head of
Departement, Home Office."

"Problems of buying the first computer. Part 1."

"DOS CHKDSK-command and how to make use of it."

"How to make a computer talk? Telephone interview with Mr.
Raimo Laukkanen, the inventor of the Finnish-made pocket-size
speech synthesiser for the [Commodore] 64."

"Why do the speech synthesisers mostly speak with a male voice?
Telephone interview with Mr. Raimo Laukkanen, part 2."

"A computerised Easter card."

"The curse of too complicated manuals."

"How to control movement with sound."

"How to run a school with a computer."

"A composer and his computer."

"Two submarine simulations (Silent Service and
the GATO). Interview of their realism with Lt.
Commander Juhani Meilahti, Finnish Navy."

Not just effects
Within two years, Silikoni had morphed into a real programmer
community, but the show never became insular. Hosts took pains to
educate and integrate new listeners into the bi-monthly program-and
to make clear that those "buzzing" segments were not
interference.

The head announcer of YLE sometimes complained to Lehtonen that
he was now stuck in a "Kafka-like situation." While he often had to
apologise for real static over the airwaves, "now he had to
defend our buzzings explaining that
they were no interference but an OK part of the
transmission," Lehtonen said.

Silikoni eventually included a semi-regular feature explaining
the "buzzing" in the broadcasts. "They are not just effects but
working computer code," the segment description emphasised.

Some listeners cared nothing for the code-they simply enjoyed
the sound of the buzz. "I once had a letter from a 70 year old lady
who wrote she did not understand anything of computing but she
liked to listen to how different makes of computers buzzed
in their personal (!) ways," Lehtonen recalled. By 1987,
these "makes" included IBM PCs, which were edging Commodore out of
the market.

Quirky charms aside, Silikoni's main draw were the useful and
instructive programs that computer-equipped listeners could
download from the broadcasts. Forget typing in pages of code from
magazines or swapping cassettes at computer clubs-even those living
far from cities could pick up code to games, business scripts,
graphics applications, and even word processing programs.

"Everything was so new"
Silikoni lasted for about three years, when staff changes and new
priorities for YLE led to the show's retirement. We asked Lehtonen
to assess its impact. "I cannot say," he modestly replied, though
he noted that "we could have 120,000 listeners" for each show.

Silikoni's influence is probably best measured in the trajectory
of its fans. Various companies hired 30 Silikoni kids one summer to
turn Silikoni programs into marketable code, for instance, and
participants sometimes came on the show to report their progress.
Eero Tunkelo went on to college, then to Nokia, and then became the
Chief Technology Officer of a company that provided mobile
application services for the smartphone giant. After that he came
to the United States to take two graduate degrees in technology and
management.

"Now that I think of it, Silikoni was a big deal for me,"
Tunkelo recalled. "I think it was something that solidified some of
the computer skills that I had. It was an interesting social
experiment that I was happy to be part of. It was innovative.
Everything was so new at the time."

Listen yourself
Wonder how the "buzzing" actually sounded? Thanks to the magic of
the Internet, you can still hear some of the early Silikoni
broadcasts.

Comments

Hi, I enjoyed the article because it made me recall the time in the late 80's and early 90's when the national TV station here in Romania broadcasted Sinclair Spectrum programs.

0sAND1s

Aug 21st 2012

This article now answers why Angry Birds targeted Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen to wear their characters on their crash helmets, never realised they originated from Finland.

kinslowdian

Aug 21st 2012

Great article. I remember seeing a stat that the Finns were the 'commodore-craziest' nation in the old continent and the Vic-20 and C-64 sold like nowhere else in there, maybe even Amiga. All retro articles always get a +1 from me.

hilariousclinton

Aug 22nd 2012

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